THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

ESTABLISHED 1840 R EG IS T ER ED A S A N EW S P A P ER

VOL. 169 No. 5065

LONDON JUNE 5th, 1937

SIXPENCE

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK

PRINCIPAL

. 797

THE “DEUTSCHLAND” AND ALMERIA ; THE DUKE OF WINDSOR ; THE FOUNTAIN OF HONOUR ; THE HOME OFFICE AND REARMAMENT : THE ARMY OF TODAY ; THE PROFITS TAX ; A LONG-TERM LAND POLICY ; TRADE UNION OFFICIALISM TAKES CONTROL ; MOTIVES FOR CAUTION ; CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN THE COMMONS ; THE DIVORCE BILL THE VATICAN AND THE GERMAN

GOVERNMENT .......................................... 800 THE TRUTH ABOUT GUERNICA . . .. 801

By DOUGLAS JERROLD THE BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN

SCHOOLS IN SPAIN .............................. 804 By PROFESSOR E. ALLISON PEERS DORIOT AND TARDIEU .............................. 805 SPANISH LETTER .......................................... 806

CONTENTS

ROME LETTER ..........................................807 THE CHURCH ABROAD .............................. 808 THE SPANISH ACADEMICIANS . . . 810 BOOKS OF THE WEEK .............................. 812

WHITHER FRANCE ? ; STRANGER WONDERS ; MEDICAL MODES AND MORALS : GENEVA versus PEACE ; OUT OF MY COFFIN ; THE WAYFARER’S COMPANION ; IDEALISM ; CATHOLIC PERIODICALS LETTERS TO THE ED IT O R .............................. 818 TOWN AND COUNTRY .............................. 819 THE TEACHERS’ G U I L D .............................. 820

Address by The ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER PUBLIC EDUCATION IN 1936 . 821

By The BISHOP OF PELLA O B I T U A R I E S ..................................................... 822

THE WORLD WEEK BY WEEK The “Deutschland” and Almeria

The Valencia Government have never pretended to like the presence of German and Italian ships off the east coast of Spain. The Balearic Islands are held for Franco, and are an important Nationalist base. A little time ago we had evidence of an effort that was being made to beat up an agitation in this country against allowing Germany and Italy to occupy the Western Mediterranean as supervisors under the NonIntervention Agreement. But the principle on which they were allotted those waters was the same simple principle which stationed the French and Russian ships off the coast of Nationalist Spain. We have little doubt that the bombs dropped on the Deutschland were intended to create an incident and to lead to the withdrawal of Germany and Italy from the Non-Intervention scheme. Valencia is fighting the war at Geneva. It cannot conduct military offensives in Spain ; it can conduct diplomatic offensives, and its aim is to create a diplomatic front of Russia, France, Britain and Valencia, who will be boldly, if unprecisely, called “ the peace-loving democracies,’’ to be ranged against Germany and Italy. If the conflict could be widened, the Valencia regime might be saved. For that reason, anything which renders the continuance of the NonIntervention Committee more difficult is a mistake. The Germans were fully within their rights in calling for a more effective system of security for patrolling battleships, but they weakened their case by immediately bombarding Almeria in reprisal. No doubt Almeria is a fortified naval port, whose batteries made appropriate targets. No doubt it was not a case of firing shells indiscriminately into the streets of a watering-place. No doubt, too, this form of bombardment from the sea has often been used before to enforce compliance, as when Alexandria was bombarded by the British fleet in 1882, but the fact remains that there was no military reason for the attack, that the victims have been some twenty wholly innocent people, and the operation has about it a note of hot tempered vengeance which one would have imagined the Nazis particularly anxious to avoid. Such incidents inflame feeling, and they must make the population of places like Almeria feel a certain solidarity with a regime whose rapid replacement they would otherwise be very glad to see. The Duke of Windsor

Now that the Duke of Windsor is legally married, it is much to be hoped that no attempt will be made to keep him indefinitely out of the country, where he can still have a great field of public usefulness. We write this because there is a discernible tendency to treat him as a pariah, to be mentioned as seldom as possible, and such an attitude is flagrantly unjust. Once he had made his choice between the alternatives put before him, he acted in an irreproachable manner in order to do nothing that might make his brother’s task in any way more difficult. He kept the good of the monarchy in the forefront of his mind, although he did not feel equal to sustaining the prescribed role under the prescribed conditions himself. It will be short-sighted, as it will be ungenerous, should the Cabinet advise His Majesty, as it is suspected of doing, to discourage his brother from returning. For over twenty years the Duke earned and held a unique position. Year after year he received most whole-hearted tributes for his public work, and the leading articles of the Press—of The Times in particular—bear lasting witness to it. All this has not been, and ought not to be, forgotten, and he cannot now be treated as though with abdication he had, of course, chosen voluntary exile and oblivion. The Fountain of Honour

Mr. Baldwin’s retirement has led to a number of changes and transfers, and to the granting of a number of honours. It has long been customary for the King to ask the advice of a Prime Minister, who retires when in office, about his successor. Mr. Baldwin’s own succession to the Premiership, instead of Lord Curzon, raised the question of who had the right to advise the King, and in fact a considerable number of leading